This invention relates to television games and training systems and, more particularly, to such games and training systems which employ electro-optical sensors. Television games providing photosensitive devices capable of sensing large, bright target symbols on the screen of a television receiver are well known and disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,728,480; 3,829,095; and RE 28,598, all assigned to the assignee of the present application.
All of these patents refer in part to target shooting games which provide for the display of a distinct target spot on the screen of a television receiver which, when imaged on a gun-mounted, electro-optical sensor, results in a series of output pulses indicating that the gun was indeed lined up properly with the target and therefore, a "hit" had been scored.
Numerous light sensitive rifle and pistol shooting game units based on the referenced patents have been produced during the past number of years. These television game accessories have provided game players with an interesting way of interacting with the screen of the television receiver. To date, these shooting systems have, in general, been applied only to relatively simple television games in which very few symbols appear simultaneously on the television receiver screen. Thus, there was no problem in discerning whether a target spot had been hit or was missed.
Present day television games frequently involve a larger number of both static and moving symbology simultaneously present on the screen of the television receiver. As a result, simple, earlier methods of identifying a "hit" of a target spot will not work adequately since there are many spots on the screen at one time and one is not apprised of which of the many spots was aligned with the electro-optical sensor when it sensed light therefrom.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide improved means of electro-optically sensing displayed images on a television screen.
It is another object of this invention to permit detecting from a distance a particular spot on a television screen and to acknowledge that, in fact, the particular spot was detected rather than one of the many other symbols which may be displayed at the same time.